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One Indian cricket team has withdrawn cheerleaders from matches
while others are being told to cover up, after protests that their
dances and skimpy outfits were offensive to conservative
Indians.

Cheerleaders, many imported from abroad, were hired to liven up
India's new $900 million domestic cricket league in which eight
teams play a shortened version of the traditional game.

But while drum players, blaring music and the presence of
Bollywood stars cheering among spectators may have livened up
stadia, cheerleaders may be one spectacle too far.

"At the right time of course we will be open to this," Vijay
Vancheswar, vice-president of GMR group that owns the Delhi
Daredevils, told local media on Wednesday.

"Having said that, it is a question of priorities and the
priority now is to play cricket and there will be no cheerleaders
for now," he said.

The sight of many foreign women and Indians dancing in high
boots and skimpy shorts sparked anger from both Hindu nationalists,
who opposed their open sexuality, and some leftist parties who said
it crudely copied Western culture.

"The manner in which semi-clad girls keep shaking their limbs is
in bad taste," Uddhav Thackeray, head of the hardline Hindu
nationalist Shiv Sena party was quoted as saying in the Times of
India.

Police near Mumbai, where the Mumbai Indians were due to play,
said earlier this week they would be watching out for indecency
both in the cheerleaders' dress and dance routine.

The cheerleaders appeared at the match in less revealing outfits
- where there was once exposed cleavages, midriffs and thighs,
there was now only skintight lycra.

The local police commissioner later described them as "decent
and sober", according to the Hindustan Times.

But well-known cheerleaders from the Washington Redskins are
still performing for the Bangalore Royal Challengers, and there
have been no reports that they have toned down their
performances.